Wraith Isenguard
by Hermione Starise
Summary: Newly appointed Secondary Director of the Isenguard Station, a remote research centre where people do insist on disappearing, the last thing Hermione needs is skeletons falling out of their cupboards in the form of Ron Weasley the auror- COMPLETE!-!!!
1. Prelude

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers, not me. * Prologue- A story in the Daily Prophet. * AN- An idea that struck me while on holiday in Wales. I just got back and had to type it out staright away! *  
  
Many of you who, like me were at Hogwarts at the same time as the great Harry Potter will remember that he was part of an elite trio. The three were made up of the illustrious hero whose name is the most well known in the Wizarding world, Harry Potter, the red-haired sidekick character Ron Weasley and the unbelievably intelligent, brains of the trio, Hermione Granger.  
  
But what, I hear you all ask, has happened to the once inseparable trio? Well I Lavender Brown investigated.  
  
Harry is as we all know a world class Quidditch player. During his school days he was shy of the spotlight and disliked being the centre of attention. It seems that now our hero has accepted and maybe even started to like his universal fame. Harry has had a string of girlfriends and lovers but none have lasted for very long and he has made no long term commitments. So girls, there's a chance for you yet!  
  
He remade his parents house (the location of which we are not allowed to reveal for security reasons) and now lives there in comfort. He is currently the top seeker for the Wimberoune Wasps who haven't failed to win the cup since taking him on board. We have also seen him in countless England matches who along with the talents of Oliver Wood, our top keeper, have been extremely successful.  
  
But what of the more elusive but no stranger to the public eye, Ron Weasley? Although he will always be overshadowed by his best friend, Ron too is considered a great hero. Not only for his involvement in Harry defeating Voldemort (for the second time) but for his continued campaign against the dark magic that lurks in the shadows of our society. Ron's work as an auror has gained him fame  
  
He lives in an ostentatious flat in Wizarding London and like Harry had had a string of girlfriends and lovers with no long term commitments. Although not as close to Harry as in their school days he still shares the occasional night out with him and sees him at times like Christmas and Easter when Harry joins the large (and still expanding) Weasley family in their celebrations.  
  
The third member of the trio is by far the most elusive. The public have not seen anything of her since she left Hogwarts. Hermione was offered many jobs when she left school, she had surpassed any previous Hogwarts student in her newts exams and so she was a sought after person. I remember meeting a troubled Hermione Granger in Hogsmeade at this time; she told me that she just didn't know what she wanted to do! This is understandable when you're talented in nearly everything. Finally three months later after an argument that had split her up with her Hogwarts boyfriend Ron, she was asked to go to the Isenguard Station on the remote and somewhat desolate island of Orkney. She accepted.  
  
Little else is known about Hermione or what the Isenguard Station actually is except that its some sort of research centre approved by the Unspeakables branch of the Ministry of Magic. She has all but lost contact with her best friends and I suspect she has never seen or heard from Ron Weasley since their break-up.  
  
It's sad. For a three that had been such a good team to be torn apart. This perhaps shows the hazards of love, and I for one am determined to find out more.  
  
Too Be Continued...  
  
By Lavender Brown reporter for the Daily Prophet. 


	2. Chapter 1 Realities

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * Chapter 1- * AN- although this is very Tolkien orientated it is not a cross over I'm just borrowing some of the ideas and names. * Ron Weasley faced his best friend with a grim expression on his face.  
  
"Why so gloomy?" Harry asked the tall red-headed man who sat on his couch.  
  
"It's my next mission." Ron replied frowning.  
  
"It's nothing dangerous is it?" Harry asked, realising too late what a stupid question he had just asked.  
  
"Harry ALL my missions are dangerous! Yet it may just be that this one is even more so!" Ron snapped.  
  
The report in the 'Daily Prophet' had been extremely misleading; Harry and Ron were just as close as they had ever been and their nights out were far from occasional. In fact Harry was suffering the consequences of one for as he regarded his friend, his head was pounding.  
  
"How? What is it?" Harry asked scared, by then Ron had managed to convince him that he was being sent to certain death- but surely it couldn't be that bad?  
  
Ron took a deep breath, "I'm being sent to investigate disappearances." Ron said.  
  
Harry blinked, that was nothing unusual, and so why was Ron so worried? "But Ron, you do that all the time!" Harry protested.  
  
"Yes, I do. But never before have I had to go to the Isenguard Station." Ron said as if he were announcing his beheading.  
  
Harry almost laughed- in Ron's case this was worse than being sent to certain death.  
  
"I've known about it for ages, I had just forgotten about HER being there till I read the Daily Prophet this morning!"  
  
It was Harry's turn to grimace. He had also been reading the 'Daily Prophet' and had not liked what he had read, but his dislike was because he resented that idea that he liked fame.  
  
"Come on Ron, maybe this is your chance to make friends again, and then she'll be more open with me too! I still get letters from her but they don't tell me much!" Harry said.  
  
"You still get letters?" Ron asked, in an almost accusative tone that made Harry smile, he knew that Ron sucked up as much information about his Hogwarts sweetheart as possible and had even gone so far as reading the educational books she had had published. Strangely although Lavender Brown had picked up on everything else, she hadn't mentioned the books.  
  
"Yes I do." Harry admitted, "I know she doesn't write to you but maybe she would if you wrote to her first."  
  
Ron pulled a face, "No. She'll probably just ignore me anyway! Besides I don't know if I want any more to do with her! Ever!  
  
*  
  
The large round room of the most westerly tower of the Isenguard castle was packed with people. The chatter that hit bounced off the stone wall was nervous and upset. The mood of the room was one of mistrust and unease.  
  
Among them, Dr Hermione Granger glanced at her watch. The emergency meeting that had been called was late in starting. She sat on a bench at the edge of the room, watching the worried expressions and listening on the conversations around her. Things were bad.  
  
She was so lost in her own worry that at first she didn't notice her friend, Eilonwy speaking to her.  
  
"Hermione! Are you listening," The elfin princess said.  
  
"Oh, sorry Eilonwy, I was lost in my thoughts." Hermione said coming out of her reverie.  
  
"I said, Jacob is worn out, he can't possibly hold this meeting. He asked if you would instead." Eilonwy pressed. Eilonwy did indeed have elfin heritage, pointy ears and all.  
  
Hermione felt knots of fear tighten even further in her stomach. "Me?"  
  
"Yes you! Why else did he appoint you second in command?"  
  
"I know, but I've only had a week to get used to the idea!" Hermione replied. The Director of the Isenguard Station, Jacob de Winter was old and more of a figure head to the station than a director. So he had set about finding someone who could do the jobs that he could no longer manage. Although Hermione was surprised that he had given her the post of Second Director many others had not been so. It was obvious that with her talent, intelligence and friendship with the elderly man that she would be appointed, Hermione however had presumed that he would want someone older and more expreinced that a twenty three year old wiz kid.  
  
"Ok. But I don't know what'll happen there are still some people against me being given this job!" Hermione said standing up and heading towards the podium in the middle of the room.  
  
The chatter stopped when people saw her. She gulped and pointed her wand towards herself, "Sonorous." She muttered.  
  
"Jacob had asked me to lead this meeting," Hermione announced, "I'm new to this and not nearly as good at giving speeches as Jacob."  
  
Mutters spread around the room, many of them unfriendly.  
  
"I know that you are all shocked by the news of yet another disappearance. I am as frightened as any of you. Chris Montage has joined the growing list of people who have disappeared from this station and the first to be last seen at the Station. This clears up any doubt that there was a definite correlation between the disappearances and this station." Hermione paused looking around the room. "The Auror's Division on the mainland have promised to send somebody to investigate. They will no doubt want to interview many of you. I beg for you patience, the sooner we get to the bottom of this, the better- but I have a nasty suspicion that this horrid affair will drag on." 


	3. Interlude 1

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * Interlude 1 * Mission Identity: Wraith Isenguard.  
  
Commander: Ronald Weasley  
  
Team: Jane Freeman Mark Rees Kate Silvers Kenneth Green  
  
Brief: No less than 7 people all connected to the Isenguard Station have been reported missing. The first disappearance was reported two months ago on September 5th. The most recent one was reported this morning, November 8th and the person in question was last seen yesterday evening, November 7th at around 7o'clock, pm.  
  
In order of disappearance, the 7 people who have been reported missing are- Henry Baskable, male, aged 34 Tellsa Gertman, female, aged 56 Polly Hercubs, female, aged 22 Jack Ravendale, male, aged 23 Honoria Noone, female, aged 74 Rosalie Jarvis, female, aged 20 Chris Montage, male, aged, 32  
  
Your mission is to discover the whereabouts of these people and if alive bring to safety.  
  
Location: The Isenguard Station situated on the remote Island of Orkney. Use muggle transport as apparition is banned by the Islands Wizard authorities.  
  
Background: The I.S. (Isenguard Station) is a research centre looking into all aspects of wizardry. The founder and Director is a man named Jacob de Winter. It is funded by the Unspeakable Operations department of the Ministry of Magic and its research is top-secret. For the purpose of this mission you will be given complete access throughout the I.S. 


	4. Chapter 2 Inteview

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * Chapter 2- Inteview *  
  
Ron crumpled up the hateful mission briefing and tossed it to the floor, instantly thinking better of it and picking it up and flattening it out.  
  
"What's the matter boss? You've been moody ever since we left?" Asked Mark Rees.  
  
"Nothing. I just don't like sailing." Ron snapped back, which was partially true for the rocking motion of the boat they were on was making Ron feel ever so slightly ill.  
  
Mark, whose muggle father had been a sailor laughed, "Don't worry Ron. You'll get used to it."  
  
Kate Silvers who looked very green said, "It' easy for you to say your Dad is a sailor!"  
  
"What difference does that make?" Mark asked.  
  
"Sailing comes naturally to you! It's in your blood!" Jane Freeman laughed.  
  
"Well I don't see you suffering much either!" Ron remarked.  
  
"No. I guess the rock, rock; rock of the boat doesn't effect me" She grinned.  
  
"And this is your first time on a boat Janie," Kenneth (Ken) Green asked, he too was a pale shade of green.  
  
"Yep. And I love it! The rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock.."  
  
"Shut Up!"  
  
*  
  
Ron glared up at the unwelcoming castle that loomed in front of him. He had sent the rest of the team to visit the homes of the missing people who lived in the town. Most of them did.  
  
The Isenguard Station was not what you would call a friendly looking castle. It was made out of a shiny black rock which Ron had never seen before. Its many towers rose up to pierce the gathering storm clouds like daggers stabbing their enemies.  
  
The wind roared around him sending icy rain to sting his eyes and frost to bite his skin. Somewhere in the distance he could hear the low rumble of thunder.  
  
"I am definitely NOT going to enjoy my stay here!" He muttered.  
  
* Ron found himself in a large but homely office. He hadn't thought it was possible for an office to be homely but here he was sitting in such a place. There was a roaring fire in the grate. He sat on a comfy couch that was adorned with many cushions. A tea tray had been set down on a large oak desk behind which in a rocking chair sat a merry, plump old man.  
  
"The weather is exceptionally bad here at this time of year!" Jacob de Winter said, "You must be chilled to the bone."  
  
"I am yes. Ron admitted.  
  
"It's such terrible goings on. I've lost some of my best people. I hope you will be able to find them Mr Weasley."  
  
Ron found himself liking the old man. He was grandfatherly and had a similar twinkle in his grey eyes as Albus Dumbledore had had in his blue eyes. "My team and I will do our best."  
  
"That's what I like to hear!"  
  
Ron sat and chatted to him while he drank a welcome cup of tea. Almost forgetting why he was there. Jacob de Winter obviously realised that they were going off the point for he said,  
  
"I suppose you'll want to question the staff?"  
  
"Yes. Can you give me a list? And how shall I say this, point me in the direction of loyalties and firenships, love affairs etc?"  
  
"I am afraid young man that I not the best person to ask. I find hard to keep up with the comings and goings of this castle now-a-days. I am getting old and therefore do only a fraction of what I used to. You better see the Secondary Director. Her name's Hermione Granger, cleverest witch I've ever known."  
  
"Ditto." Ron thought. He was intrigued by the warmth in the old mans voice when he spoke of Hermione.  
  
"Where can I find her?" Ron asked. Why oh why did it have to be her? A single interview he could have managed but it looked like Hermione was Jacob de Winter's spokesperson. He would have to consult her!  
  
"She lives in one of the tower flats, the most northerly. No doubt she'll be up there she works late on every working day except for today- Wednesday. It's easy enough to find. Just go back to the main hall, and go across the courtyard to the North Entrance. There are some labs there but the only staircase leads up to her front door. "  
  
"Thankyou," Ron said getting up to leave. He walked towards the door then turned,  
  
"How is Hermione these days?" He asked, instantly wishing he hadn't.  
  
"You know her?"  
  
"Yes, we were best friends at Hogwarts, if dare I say it, a little more." Ron admitted.  
  
"Ahh, I see, so no doubt you'll be terrified of seeing her again?" Jacob De Winter said knowingly.  
  
"Yes, then again I was always terrified of her. Scary girl, brilliant but scary!"  
  
*  
  
After crossing the courtyard all the homeliness of Jacob de Winter's flat was forgotten.  
  
"The tower flat?" Ron muttered disbelievingly. The most Northerly tower was one of the highest and had a foreboding, unsolicited look about it, giving Ron the image of Hermione in long flowing white robes, hair that fell from her window to the ground and with large unhappy eyes pleading with him: a princess locked away from the world.  
  
The reality was very different.  
  
Knock, Knock.  
  
No answer.  
  
Knock, Knock, Knock, Knock.  
  
"Hang on Eilonwy! I won't be a moment!" Hermione's clear confident voice sounded. Knock, Knock. Ron was getting impatient and his nerves did nothing to help. The door opened to reveal a flustered Hermione, quite the opposite of what Ron had imagined.  
  
"I'm sorry Eilon.." She trailed off looking up into his face in utter disbelief.  
  
He had practised what he would do next, "Commander Weasley, I'm here to investigate the disappearances, Mr de Winter sent me to you."  
  
He flinched as an expression of hurt, and then anger passed over her oh so lovely face. She still had all the charm that had attracted him to her in the first place and yet even more.  
  
Her wild ringlets had been cut shorter than they ever had been during her school day s and lay just past her elegant shoulders. This had the effect of her hair not being so bushy and her curls more glossy. Her skin was smooth and slightly tanned. Her eyes were the only thing that had not changed at all, they were still a deep dark unreachable brown and still held that spark of intelligence and curiosity. They still had the power to root him to the spot, even when angry.  
  
"He did? Well then, you better come in." She replied icily. Her tone bored Ron to his heart, so cold so distant. It was more like the one she had used with Draco Malfoy than ever with him.  
  
"Thank you." He replied trying to inject the same coldness into his own voice but somehow he could not and concentrated instead on making his expression haughty.  
  
She led him through to a room with an orangey red suite and long thick red curtains. A fire blazed in the hearth and a large yellow mass of fur lay in front of it on a bright rug. There were a few pieces of oak furniture, a coffee table, a bookcase and a mantelpiece.  
  
The large yellow mass of fur got up and went to Hermione's feet. It was a Golden Retriever. What about Crookshanks? Surely he wouldn't share his mistress with a dog?  
  
"Please sit," She said: all frosty politeness.  
  
"Thank you, Miss Granger." He replied sitting, a feeling of intense gloominess falling on him, what had happened to them? What had he done? They couldn't even be friendly anymore. He was lost in despair and it was all he could do to remember why he was there. "Is it possible to have a list of your staff?" He asked.  
  
"Yes," She said and with a wave of her wand (still the same one: eleven inches, unicorn hair, willow he would never forget that) a roll of parchment appeared. "This will suffice, will it not? It has a list of everyone who works here, in alphabetical order and details of their position are also included."  
  
He took the parchment from her, daring for a second to look into those eyes which had once enchanted him. He saw with surprise not the aloof person he was speaking to, but confusion, an unsteady flow of emotion. So she was still human. But had hurt her, she wouldn't forget that.  
  
"And can you tell me something off the people who have gone missing, starting with Henry Baskable?" He asked, "Who did he associate with?"  
  
"Henry was very distant. No one was really surprised when he went missing. He was working on my project. He did the work and only spoke when it was relevant to the work. He seemed very unhappy." She replied plainly.  
  
"Tellsa Gertman?"  
  
"She was very friendly with Jacob, Me de Winter that is. She wasn't a researcher. She came in to help the house elves every other day and spent her afternoons with Mr de Winter, reading to him. His eyesight is not as good as it once was. I liked her." Ron saw a stab of pain attack Hermione; this was hurting her as much as him turning up at her door.  
  
"Polly Hercubs?  
  
"I didn't know here very well. She was one of the potions group. Krystal Wakely, Tim Jennings, Kevin Morland," She paused, "Draco Malfoy."  
  
Ron looked up from his notepad in disbelief. "But he.."  
  
"He got out of Azkaban. It's amazing what a little money can do even now." She said bitterly.  
  
Knock, knock.  
  
The dog who had been lying at Hermione's feet, got up and bounded towards the door.  
  
"Will you excuse me for a moment?" Hermione asked, not waiting for his reply before going to answer the door.  
  
"Eilonwy! You're late!" Hermione said, her voice was friendly though to this Eilonwy. He felt a stab of jealousy. She had new friends now.  
  
An elf was lead into the room. Ron blinked with surprise. An elf? But they don't usually live in human dwellings?  
  
"This is Commander Weasley; he's here to investigate the disappearances," Hermione said, saying his name with a dislike that stung him.  
  
"Eilonwy of Herolia," The elf said shaking his hand, obviously realising that Hermione wasn't happy about him being there and speaking just as icily as Hermione. Now that wasn't fair!  
  
"Would you mind taking Pippin out for his walk alone? I have to answer the commander's questions?" Hermione asked her friend.  
  
"Of course." The elf replied.  
  
When Eilonwy had gone Ron continued.  
  
"What about Jack Ravendale?"  
  
* And so the questions went on. Hermione answered them with increasing difficulty. How dare he? Come in here and act all business like, treat her just like another person who had to interview?  
  
Well two could play at that game. She was deliberately as unfriendly, impersonal, and spoke with her best professional coldness, an art that she had learned over the years.  
  
When Pippin had gone, she felt alone and insecure. She regretted more than ever Jacob making her his second in command. She was glad when her cat, who usually slept during the day, came down from his hiding place in her library at the top of her flat and came to be petted.  
  
Crookshanks stopped however when he recognised the scent of the other person in the room and trotted across to him instead. TRAITOR! Hermione thought.  
  
She noticed Ron's business man approach falter slightly with affection for the cat. How dare he? She was fuming, confused and hurt all at the same time. Why hadn't she realised that the auror might turn out to be HIM?  
  
"Chris Montage?" He asked her, his tone even.  
  
"Chris was one of my friends. Very clever man related vaguely to the late Professor Dumbledore. His wife Anna works here too. She's very upset. Chris only ever worked on alchemy, and has made some startling discoveries. If you wanted to find out more you'd have to ask Anna."  
  
"Thank you. Finally is there room in the castle for me and my team to stay? With an operations room if possible?"  
  
Hermione frowned, she wasn't sure if there was room. At least there was but the rooms weren't furnished. She had been considering doing something about that. "How many of you are there?" She asked.  
  
"Five: including me." He replied.  
  
"If you would be kind enough to wait a moment, I will consult with the House elves."  
  
"Of course."  
  
Hermione exited from her living room, going further up the staircase, bypassing the kitchen floor and the one with her bedroom and bathroom on it to her library room. This was her favourite room. It had all the original oak furniture that had been made when the castle was fist built at the time of Arthur and Merlin. There was a large table on which various papers and her magically enhanced lap top lay. The window had no curtains but wooden shutters and there were several skilfully made chairs around the table. The walls were lines with shelves of books and underneath the table was a beautifully made chest with cultic patterns carved into it.  
  
Hermione went to a space on the wall where a large mirror with a frame of silver flowers and images of wood nymphs, fairies and stars.  
  
"I would like to talk to Gertha the House elf." She said.  
  
Almost instantly the face of an eager house elf appeared in the mirror.  
  
"Hello Dr. Granger what can Gertha be doing for you?" She squeaked.  
  
"You know the west wing?" Hermione asked.  
  
"Yes Miss." "Would it be possible to make five bedrooms in it and one larger room with a table, five chairs, shelves etc?" Hermione asked, realising she was asking for a lot. "With our magic miss?" "Yes of course Gertha." Hermione said smiling. "Yes Miss! I'll have it done as soon as possible!" "Thank you." * When Hermione returned she said, "Your rooms will be ready in a few hours."  
  
"Thank you, where will they be?" Ron asked.  
  
"In the West Wing. You may wait down in the common room till the rooms are ready. It's through the first door on your left in the Entrance hall, up the little stair case. I'll see that one of the house elves fetches you when the rooms are ready."  
  
Ron feeling exhausted with the effort it took to remain distant around Hermione, was it possible that he still loved her? He said, a little weakly, "Thank you, you've been very helpful."  
  
Hermione showed him to the door, with stiff dignity. When he walked down the stairs he felt salty tears in his eyes. * When he had gone Hermione felt despair as never before. How could he be so heartless? Couldn't he have let one of his team members interview her? She sat down heavily on the couch: and cried her heart out. * AN- Ok so I'm sorry it was so long and slightly depressing which was probably because I was listening to the Les Miserables show tune highlights when I wrote it. I got a little carried away! Please review! 


	5. Chapter 3 So Much Like Hogwarts

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * Chapter 3- So much like Hogwarts * THE NEXT DAY  
  
"Ahh, can't I ever have a lie in!" Harry complained when he was awoken by an owl banging on his window. A very small; familiar owl.  
  
Harry opened the window to let Pig in. The little owl flew straight off again, carrying another letter obviously for the Auror Division headquarters. Harry opened the letter, it read:  
  
Dear Harry, Could life get any worse? Not only have I to spend the next I don't know how many weeks in the same castle as her but she's the Secondary Director and the Director himself is too old to deal with the castles comings and goings. So I had to interview her, ask her for a place to stay! And oh Harry it was awful! She was so icy! She spent all the time speaking in a cold dignified sort of way. And the way she looked, hurt and angry. It was unbearable! I have to go to a full staff meeting, talk to them. I'll see her again. What will I do? From a very distressed home craving, Ron  
  
Harry stared. Oh dear! What was going on there? What had Ron expected? She was hardly going to be friendly! But the way Ron was talking. Did he still feel for her? Harry had always suspected it but had never had as much proof as he had in that letter.  
  
* The house elves served Ron and his friend's breakfast in their operations room. Which Ron was glad for, it meant he didn't have to see Hermione.  
  
Mark came in with a mischievous, teasing expression on his face. "I know why the boss didn't like the sound of this mission and why he's been so bad tempered!"  
  
To Ron's mortification Mark was holding the previous days, 'Daily Prophet' in his hand, open at Lavender Browns report on the 'Potter Trio'. He report was passed around.  
  
"Why didn't you tell us Ron?" Jane asked.  
  
"Who is she?" Kate asked.  
  
"I didn't tell you because it's none of your business and she's the Secondary Director." Ron replied hotly.  
  
"Oh that pretty woman who got these rooms for us. I met her in the corridor," Ken teased him.  
  
"She's pretty is she?" Jane asked him, jokingly, although Ken was her boyfriend she new he was only playing.  
  
"Yes, she is actually!" Ron admitted gruffly his eyes flashing with anger, "And ancient history!"  
  
"Oh I'm not so sure, she wouldn't have you in this state otherwise!" Kate laughed.  
  
Ron sighed; for once he wished his team wasn't so teasing. It was usually a good joke when they carried on, but Hermione was a sore subject.  
  
"If she's ancient history you won't mind if I ask her for a drink do you?" Mark said, feigning seriousness.  
  
"Go ahead!" Ron grumbled.  
  
"You'll do no such thing!" Kate said, hitting her boyfriend in fun.  
  
Ron sighed again, why did they all have to be paired off? He usually didn't mind. They had been before he had became their boss but it made the whole business with Hermione all the more difficult and he felt more vulnerable to her charms (icy as they had been the previous day) when he saw his young team all in love. Or was it anything to do with them?  
  
"To work!" Ron said, changing the subject.  
  
*  
  
"What was all that about with the red haired man?" Eilonwy asked Hermione at breakfast in the dining hall, "I've never seen you being so unfriendly, except to Malfoy. What had he done?"  
  
Hermione sighed; she knew this subject would come up.  
  
"He hurt me. I suppose I must have hurt him too. But that was a long time ago." Hermione said, had it really been only three years?  
  
The expression on Eilonwy's face told her that she wasn't going to get away with saying just that. Eilonwy never read the paper. She hadn't even heard of Harry.  
  
"He was my boyfriend, for the last year at Hogwarts and the summer after, before I came here. I got loads of offers for jobs but didn't know what to do. I finally decided to go into the Auror's division with Ron. He didn't like it. He said he didn't want me putting myself in danger I said I had as much right to put myself in danger as he did. We argued and argued about it until I got the job offer here. I went, Ron had broken my heart and so I left him. I thought then that he just didn't want me around all the time I know now that he was trying to protect me." Hermione said, realising she now had an audience.  
  
She looked round at her friends: Frank, Maya, David, Petra and Eilonwy. Maya, the romantic one had tears in her eyes.  
  
"Like I said it was a long time ago." Hermione said dismissing the subject.  
  
* "We have at last been given support in this difficult time. Many of you have had friends and loved ones disappear. I hope that with the help of Commander Ronald Weasley and his team we will soon get to the bottom of this!" Jacob de Winter said, leaning on his walking stick and earning a cheer from the crowd gathered in the room where Hermione had held her first meeting.  
  
Ron got up onto the platform, his eyes scanning the staff, resting for a brief moment on Hermione, narrowing when he caught site of the smirking Draco Malfoy.  
  
"I will need to interview all of you. Particularly those more connected to the persons who have been reported missing. We may be here for some time and I thank you for making us welcome." He stepped down to mutters, some of approval some of dislike.  
  
*  
  
Later, after interviewing what seemed like thousands of people, Ron and his team went down to the small wizarding village where there was a small pub.  
  
The Prancing Pony.  
  
"Why is this all so Tolkien related?" Jane asked as they went in.  
  
"Jacob de Winter told me that he had a soft spot for his books, when he brought the castle he named it after something in the Lord of The Rings. I guess it must catch. Dr Granger even named her dog after one of the hobbits." Ron replied  
  
The pub was full of Isenguard Station staff. There was a hushed silence when the aurors entered as heads turned to get a better look at them. Ron noticed Hermione sitting at a table with the elf and some others. Their eyes met for a brief moment, something Ron found painful and looked away quickly. The chatter had restarted and the team found a table while Ken went to get drinks.  
  
Ron felt uncomfortable; the elven woman was glaring at him  
  
"Maybe this was a mistake," Kate said, "Elves are not to be crossed."  
  
"She's what's called a mortal elf, I think," Ron said. "She's Eilonwy of Herolia; the Herolia elves are all mortals. I don't understand it, but they still have powerful magic."  
  
* The next day Ron interviewed Eilonwy of Herolia. She answered all his questions, with the same cold dignity as Hermione, and a hostile stare.  
  
"Are you a mortal elf?" Ron asked her when they had finished.  
  
Eilonwy looked surprised. "Yes, not many people have even heard of them. Of course Hermione had, that's why I made friends with her in the first place."  
  
"She would." Ron muttered.  
  
"It doesn't mean we aren't as powerful as immortal elves, the Herolia elves have their own special talents, especially me." Eilonwy said defensively.  
  
"You?" Ron asked puzzled.  
  
"Yes me!" She said crossly, "I happen to be the Second Princess Eilonwy Restacia Morgana third in line for the throne of Herolia!"  
  
"Forgive me your highness," Ron said thoroughly taken-a-back. This just got more and more complicated. He was glad that the team were planning to spend the afternoon searching the island for traces of the missing people. The castle was beginning to get to him.  
  
Why did Hermione like it so much? Harry had said that in her letters Hermione said she loved living at the castle. But why? What was so special about it/ Then Ron realised. Of course! It was a castle; there were different social groups like the four houses, competitiveness! She liked it because it was so much like Hogwarts! 


	6. Interlude 2

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * Interlude 2 * A REVIEW IN WIZARDING DISCOVERIES  
  
This new scholarly work by a young woman who has even at the age of 20 already proved herself to be extremely intelligent. A theory of animal transfiguration is a book recommended for students doing higher transfiguration at Hogwarts. Dr Hermione Granger offers insights into the theory and workings of even the most complicated incomprehensible transfigurations.  
  
With it comes a useful study guide (Higher Transfiguration at NEWTS level) a definite must for students doing the subject. It is well written, informative with guides on revision. A students dream, this book makes revising so easy!  
  
Rating 10/10  
  
"I have written these two books in the hope to help students who are striving to do well in transfiguration, to make revision easier for them. Good luck!" - Dr Hermione Granger of the Isenguard Station Orkney 


	7. Chapter 4 Old Friends and Old Enemies

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * Chapter 4- * AN- Well read it then! Sorry I'm in a slightly hyper mood, it can't be helped! Also, all fellow Harry/Ginny shippers please forgive my treachery I have not paired them together in this one. It will become clear later, just why this isn't. Please, please, please forgive me!  
  
* "Woof woof!" Barked Pippin.  
  
"Calm down Pip!" Hermione laughed at seeing her dog go mad over the new chew toy that Eilonwy had brought him.  
  
"I thought you'd like it!" Eilonwy said patting the dog on the head. "Shall we take him with us: do you think he'll mind the ferry?"  
  
"No, he gets sea sick!"  
  
They were going to the mainland for the day. Eilonwy had suggested it partially because she needed to go shopping and partially to get Hermione away from the castle and her ex-boyfriend.  
  
* A few hours later they were in Diagon Alley. Hermione had brought a copy of her new book(s) among others. Eilonwy wanted to buy dress robes and so they went into a little robe shop called Moonlight.  
  
Hermione squeaked with surprise when she saw the woman who came to serve them. It was Ginny Weasley! She had changed, and her flaming red hair not hung further down her back and her freckled face which had once been soc mischievous had matured.  
  
"Hermione Granger! Well I never! What are you doing here?" Ginny asked hugging her friend.  
  
"Escaping from your brother actually," Hermione admitted.  
  
"Who? Ron?"  
  
"Yes. He's at the Isenguard Station investigating the disappearances." Hermione said.  
  
"Oh," Ginny had noticed the bitterness in Hermione's voice because she changed the subject, "This is my shop! And I designed everything in it!"  
  
"Wow! It's wonderful!" Hermione said impressed, "Ginny, this is my friend Eilonwy, Eilonwy this is Ginny, Commander Weasley's sister."  
  
"Pleased to meet you," Ginny said shaking Eilonwy's hand, "But you're an elf!"  
  
"Mortal elf actually, but it's an easy mistake to make." Eilonwy said smiling.  
  
"Oh Hermione, things are so wonderful!" Ginny said.  
  
"Your shop you mean?"  
  
"No, not just that! I'm getting married!" Ginny announced.  
  
"Really, who to?" Hermione asked.  
  
"You remember my best friend at Hogwarts? Colin Creevy?" Ginny asked.  
  
"Yes! The camera boy! Who got petrified like me! Oh Ginny! I'm so happy for you!" Hermione said, truly happier for her friend's news.  
  
"You've been petrified?" Eilonwy asked.  
  
"Yes, in my second year, it was a basilisk." Hermione replied.  
  
* After sorting out Eilonwy's robes, during which time Hermione had brought herself a pair, after all they were made by her friend, and when Ginny's assistant had come in they went to a small café and sat sipping coffee.  
  
"So you'll get a wedding invitation soon," Ginny said. "You can come too Eilonwy."  
  
Hermione smiled, Ginny and Eilonwy had become friends. Ginny was like that, she could make friends with anybody unless their name was Malfoy.  
  
"You won't mind will you Hermione? I mean Ron being there and everything?" Ginny asked uncertainly.  
  
"No. I have to put up with him for I don't know how long back at the Isenguard Station, I think I can manage a few hours!" Hermione said grimly.  
  
"It's just that.well." Ginny said hesitatingly," weddings make people feel..romantic." "I can assure you that there is no danger of that happening to me, and certainly not as far as Ronald Weasley is concerned!" Hermione said hotly.  
  
"Hermione, we better go, we'll be late for the last ferry." Eilonwy interrupted.  
  
*  
  
Ron returned to the castle, depressed. They had made no progress and Hermione hated him! Could things get any worse!  
  
Yes, they could. Hedwig was waiting for him in his room. Ron gave the owl some owl treats and water before reading the letter she had brought.  
  
Dear Ron, If you're looking for sympathy you won't find any from me! I know you still care about her- its obvious! And I'm willing to bet she still cares for you. Talk to her, be friendly! Talk about anything me! Ginny and Colin! The twins joke shop! Make an effort. Right now I'm off looking for love..no that sounds corny...like some muggle song! Its all right for you, you obviously already have it! From your love deprived friend, Harry  
  
Ron scowled. Hedwig had stayed and was obviously waiting for a reply so he wrote one:  
  
Dear love deprived friend, I do not still care about her nor do I love her! Indeed I think you will find it is hard to be in love with a person who speaks in a hostile sort of way and who has an elven princess for a friend, who glares at you from across a pub! Also you may interested to learn that Draco Malfoy is not in Azkaban but here in the castle! Suspect or what! Kate Silvers interviewed him and put him top of the suspects list. Good luck on your search for love you need it! And if you must know I'm thinking about asking out one of the staff here called Harriet Longstaff. From your ever so slightly fed up friend, Ron  
  
*  
  
Ron was heading towards the common room to look for this Harriet Longstaff when he bumped into Draco Malfoy. He hadn't changed, he was still the blonde haired, arrogant, stuck up pig that he had always been.  
  
"Oh my the Weasels come to help his mudblood girlfriend! Oh sorry she doesn't want to have anything to do with him anymore. What a pity, the Potter trio all split up!" Malfoy drawled.  
  
As a kid Ron would have probably have lunged at him and broken his nose. But his auror training and maturity would not allow himself to do so. Instead her said, "Oh and the pureblood prat has managed to buy his way out of prison and is now living a sheltered life in a remote castle?"  
  
"Isn't that what Granger's doing?" Malfoy laughed.  
  
"Aye. But she's doing it honestly!" Ron said hotly.  
  
"Oh da-ja-voo! Its just like old times you sticking up for that mudblood!" Draco snarled.  
  
"Yeah and you being able to do nothing except throw insults!" Ron said grimly and walked off leaving a seething Draco Malfoy to plot his revenge. 


	8. Chapter 5 Discovery

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * Chapter 5- * AN- Thanks to my wonderful reviewers! To answer a few questions and drop a few hints: Isenguard IS the dwelling of Sauraman, and that connection will be important all through for the nature of Isenguard not the story. I know that don't make sense but I'll explain later on. Draco is maybe NOT the most obvious culprit after all remember one of his friends (Polly Hercubs) is missing. Now would our Draco care whether he was abducting his friend or not? Would he have enough human in him to care for his friends? That remains to be seen. Finally after this chapter I'm going to take down the mystery category on the summary because it doesn't seem to be reaching the Ron/Hermione romance section and that's the audience I'm aiming for. *  
  
Hermione had hardly slept the previous night. During dinner she had had a sudden revelation and the invention she had been puzzling over suddenly became very clear to her! Of course she hadn't been allowed back into the labs; Jacob had put charms on them so that no-one could work after 8 o'clock  
  
At breakfast she could hardly eat and had only gone down to the dining hall because her friends would worry for her is she did not turn up. They were fun people to be around and as caring as any friends should be. But they would never be Harry and Ron. Only Eilonwy came close to that, and that was probably because neither of them were in a relationship.  
  
Although she did not realise it, Hermione had a very similar problem to Ron. Most of her friends were paired off. It seemed that they were all one of two (excepting Eilonwy) and that their names were always mentioned alongside another. Frank and Maya, David and Petra, Kellsa and John, Chris and Anna. They were great friends, and they all looked so good together, kind of like her and Ron had been. 'NO' Hermione thought, 'I MUST NOT THINK LIKE THAT!'  
  
"What's wrong Hermione? You haven't eaten anything!" Eilonwy said, "It's not that Commander bothering you again is it?"  
  
"No!" Hermione said quickly, realising that she had only just remembered him while considering her friends relationships. "I haven't slept I think I'm on the verge of something!"  
  
"Really?" Eilonwy asked enthusiastically.  
  
"Yes but don't say anything to the others it might not work." Hermione replied.  
  
*  
  
"I don't get it!" Ron said agitatedly, "It doesn't fit! Seven people go missing and not one of the disappearances are linked apart from them all working in this bloody station!"  
  
"They don't belong to the same social groups, age groups or gender! I just can't make connections!" Kate moaned.  
  
"And we've searched the Island. There's no trace of them!" Mark put in.  
  
Suddenly a very excited Jane burst in.  
  
"I've got a lead! A muggle shop assistant has reported seeing a man disappear into thin air! And he matched the description of Chris Montage!" She said.  
  
"But you can't apparate on this island!" Ken protested.  
  
"No, and so the plot thickens," Ron said as cogs starting to turn in his mind.  
  
*  
  
Hermione reread her notes as to be sure that she hadn't missed anything.  
  
"This should work!" She muttered excitedly, all thoughts of Ron gone from her mind.  
  
She raised her wand and muttered her own spell words. A purple light shot from her wand, growing until it filled the whole room. It had worked.  
  
But what was this? She felt her strength and magic slipping away from her fast as the purple light blazed stronger and stronger. This was where her experiments had leaded her to; she was going to die..  
  
(AN- I could be evil and leave you on a cliff hanger there but I won't) *  
  
Kate entered the Operations Room with a worried expression on her face.  
  
"What's wrong?" Ron asked her, "Surely not another disappearance, Her.Dr Granger would have informed us straight away?"  
  
"No I don't think it's another disappearance. It's just that there's a quiet, anxious atmosphere about. People seem to be elated but worried at the same time." Kate said.  
  
"Eh?" Ken asked confused.  
  
"I don't know. Something's happened, something big but I don't think it's got anything to do with us."  
  
There was a knock at the door, surprising them all, nobody had bothered the while they were working.  
  
"Enter," Ron called.  
  
A distressed, worried Eilonwy appeared her large blue eyes red from crying. She was pale and shaking. Ron knew instantly, that something had happened to Hermione.  
  
"I thought you should know; Hermione while achieving the seemingly impossible has had a magical draining. It's not clear yet whether she'll recover." She said breaking off with a sob and leaving before anyone could say anything to her.  
  
Ron was dazed. Hermione's pretty face drifted into his minds eye, her stubbornness, her coldness, her hostility, the way she had been when he interviewed him. Then he thought of the happier time, the blissful seventh year in which Voldemort was gone, they sailed through their exams and Hermione was his girlfriend. It was then that he knew that he still loved her and she had slipped through his fingers and now he was close to loosing her completely.  
  
"Ron?" Mark asked.  
  
"I've got to see her! I've got to save her!" He said desperately.  
  
"Ron there's nothing you can do. And her friends won't be too happy if you show up." Jane said sympathetically. None of the team had realised that Ron really did care about the frosty Hermione Granger until then.  
  
"Won't they? I don't care. I've been through so much with her! She's the only person I've ever really loved, in that way. Harry! Tell Harry for me!" And with that Ron was gone.  
  
* Dear Harry, Ron told us to tell you. Dr Granger had had a magical draining and may not survive. He's very upset. Yours faithfully, Jane Freeman, Ken Green, Mark Rees and Kate Silvers *  
  
Waking to the sound of a whispered argument Hermione felt as if her whole body had been battered. Trying to ignore the pain she listened to the voices.  
  
"You aren't welcome here!" Eilonwy's voice hissed.  
  
"Just let me see her!" A male voice demanded. Ron?  
  
"She's in a coma! She can't talk!" Eilonwy replied curtly.  
  
"I don't care!" Ron said, he sounded desperate. Hermione was startled. A coma? Surely it hadn't been THAT bad?  
  
"We are her friends now. I don't know who you think you are pretending to care after all of these years!" Eilonwy whispered angrily.  
  
"I have been through so much with Hermione. You have no idea! And it may sound foolish to you, but I love her, I always have!"  
  
Hermione's heard swam, Ron still loved her? Or was he just worried and feeling guilty?  
  
"Go in," Eilonwy muttered, taken-a-back.  
  
Hermione suddenly felt very tired and closed her eyes again, drifting of into a natural sleep and when she woke she remembered nothing of the whispered conversation. 


	9. Interlude 3

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * Interlude 3 *  
  
SCIENTIST RECREATES FABLED PROTECTION SPELL!  
  
Dr Hermione Granger of the Isenguard station has brought to life the legendary 'Kimonto' protection spell. The spell was originally used by none other than Merlin to protect the muggle king, the illustrious Arthur of the Round Table in a time when wizards use magic openly.  
  
The spell is the most powerful protection in all history and although we have had proof that the spell exists, nobody had been able to recreate it- until now.  
  
Many people would have said Dr Granger's efforts were in vain. The spell was incomprehensible and the theory behind it ridiculous, it was dismissed as legend. Yet Dr Granger managed to get her head round Merlin's difficult ideas and perform the spell.  
  
Yet the spell, while meant to protect is dangerous to its instigator. Dr Granger suffered a severe magical draining for her trouble, and was extremely lucky not to die. She was in a coma for only three hours but remains exhausted and can do little but sleep.  
  
A spokes person from the Isenguard Station said: "Dr Granger's work had not been in vain and we hope further study will make the spell safer."  
  
So will this powerful spell be available for parents to protect their children with? Will it lead to nothing being too dangerous to perform? This remains to be seen.  
  
By Rufus Harman, reporter for the Daily Prophet. 


	10. Chapter 6 In which Hermione wakes up, Ro...

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * AN- There's a mistake in an earlier chapter it says Hermione had been at the I.S. for three years when in facts it's six. * When Hermione woke, days later she felt somehow refreshed but very hungry. She winced as sunlight flooded her vision and gasped as the man sitting in the chair next to her became visible.  
  
The unruly black hair, glasses, green eyes and scar were all so familiar but Harry Potter was older, taller and grinning with relief.  
  
"Hello Hermione." He said.  
  
Then the memory of what she'd tried to do fill her brain and she temporarily forgotten that she hadn't seen Harry in six years and asked, "What happened? Did I do it?"  
  
Harry chuckled and nodded, "Yes, you did and know have the magical world alight with speculation."  
  
Hermione let this sink in- six years of on and off work had just been made worth while! Then she turned her attention to the raven haired man.  
  
"I've only just arrived." Harry said, "I came as quickly as I could."  
  
"It's great to see you!" Hermione said.  
  
"I would the same to you but I came fearing the worst. You scared everybody." Harry said.  
  
"Oh. I miscalculated, I knew it would have some effect on me, but I had no idea just how much!" Hermione admitted.  
  
"Ron hasn't left your side." Harry said more seriously, "I forced him to go and rest when I came, which was only and hour or so ago."  
  
Hermione blinked in surprise. "Oh."  
  
"Are you ready to eat something?" Harry asked, abruptly changing the subject.  
  
"Yes! Food is well overdue!" Hermione said, remembering how hungry she was.  
  
"Well I'll see that you get something."  
  
* Harry went to the common room where he'd been told Hermione's friends were. When he entered, somebody rose with an anxious expression on her face.  
  
This somebody had to be the most beautiful somebody Harry had ever met. She was elfin, Harry realised. She was small and petite, graceful and radiant, even through her distress. She had long dark blue hair like a midnight sky that shone with eyrie luminosity. Harry didn't doubt that the colour was natural. Her ivory skin was flawless and her features striking. Here eyes, large and sapphire coloured were red rimmed from crying.  
  
"What's happened? Is she all right?" The elf asked, desperately, her voice like cool spring water running over smooth rocks.  
  
"Yes. She's woken up." Harry said entranced, "I'm supposed to be getting her some food."  
  
Others in the room were muttering excitedly, staring at his scar but the elf seemed not to have noticed.  
  
"I'll see to that," A chestnut haired man said, leaving the room.  
  
"Can I see her?" The elf asked, "Or is she worn out?"  
  
"She's brimming with energy," Harry said, doing his best to sound intelligent and not openly gape.  
  
"Oh good! Thank Merlin!" The elf sighed with relief.  
  
"Don't thank him; it's his fault Hermione got into this state." Harry said half to himself.  
  
The elf smiled such a captivating, wondrous smile!  
  
"Come on then, if you're coming to see her," Harry prompted. *  
  
As Harry watched the elf fuss over Hermione, he learned that her name was Eilonwy. What a pretty name! When Hermione noticed him standing in the corner staring, she grinned with delight, obviously noticing his admiration for her elfin friend.  
  
"Eilonwy, you won't have met, Harry before, Harry Potter," Hermione said.  
  
"Hello," Eilonwy said shaking his hand, noticing him for the first time. Harry felt a jolt of shock that Eilonwy wasn't in the least bit surprised or excited to be meeting the famous Harry Potter. It was conceited but he was so used to it.  
  
"Eilonwy's race no nothing of your heroics Harry. They were never affected by the dark lord." Hermione explained.  
  
Harry chuckled, "You can't imagine how refreshing it is to meet someone who has not already heard my name!" He said.  
  
"You're wrong, in my own kingdom that is a problem for me too." Eilonwy grinned, "I am the Second Princess Eilonwy Restacia Morgana third in line for the throne of Herolia."  
  
Harry blinked he wasn't sure whether to bow or not so he ended up doing an undignified bob and knocking over a chair in the process. Hermione and Eilonwy both laughed and any awkwardness was broken, only to be replaced by a sudden appearance of red hair and freckles.  
  
Eilonwy scowled (even her scowls pretty Harry thought) and Hermione's face became impassive.  
  
"Er sorry. wrong room," Ron lied, relief evident on his face.  
  
"No that's fine," Hermione said, still a little stiffly.  
  
"Take a seat," Eilonwy said, frostily.  
  
"No, really, I'm late for a meeting with my team. I'll see you later Harry, Hermione. It's a pleasure seeing you again Princess Eilonwy." Ron said his face a violent shade of magenta.  
  
*  
  
Ron raced down the corridors cursing himself silently. She had been laughing! That musical, sweet laugh he was so accustomed to but at the same time a stranger to.  
  
The despair he felt was excruciating, he had lost her and he would never get her back! Why couldn't he just accept that and learn to love another?  
  
Even as he thought this Hermione's face appeared in his mind making him know that this was impossible.  
  
He had meant what he said to Eilonwy of Herolia; he loved Hermione but had put a memory block on her not wanting her to tell Hermione. If she was going to find out, he wanted to be the one to tell her. But how? When she wouldn't even look him in the eye, and made her face like a statues whenever he walked into the room? 


	11. Chapter 7 A meeting and a Teatime conver...

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * AN- Another mistake! Hermione is NOT 20 but 23!!! If I sound slightly irate in this chapter it is because the things you order from Amazon.co.uk don't turn up on their estimation date! I know its only just came out but they did say that my copy of Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce would be here today and it's not!!!!!! AGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is NO WAY that I'm ordering the 5th Harry Potter from there, the waiting would kill me!!!!! Ok calm down. *  
  
When she had finally convinced Eilonwy and the Station's medi-wizard that she was fit to get up, Hermione took Pippin for a walk.  
  
There was nothing she liked better wandering the bleak landscape of Orkney with her lively dog. It was a cold day, but enjoying a spell of no precipitation. The strong wind filled her lungs and she felt refreshed. Ahead, below the treacherous cliff a boisterous, powerful sea played, its waves getting ever higher. The air was salty, and healthy, giving Hermione back any vigour she'd lost after her magical draining.  
  
She was often accompanied by Eilonwy on such walks, but she had offered to show Harry around the town that afternoon. Hermione was glad to be alone (well without human conversation) for a change; it gave her time to think. She tried thinking of her work; her miraculous performance of Merlin's protection spell and equally amazing recovery from the magical draining. But to no avail, red hair and freckles invaded her thoughts. Ron.  
  
She was lost within her musings when she noticed that Pippin was barking; his friendly bark Eilonwy would have called it. He must have made a friend. He came bounding back to her and tugged on her coat, obviously wanting her to meet this friend.  
  
"I'm sorry, has he bothered you?" Hermione asked, not realising who stood before her.  
  
* Ron's POV  
  
"I'm sorry, has he bothered you?" Hermione asked him, her attention used to put on the giant of a dogs lead.  
  
"No; not at all." He replied, resisting the temptation to turn upon his heels and run.  
  
She looked up in surprise, and he could appreciate how much better she was. The strong wind had put roses into her cheeks and the cool air had made her lovely coffee eyes shine. Her curls had been tied behind her head, but some escaped to dance in the wind. He realised that he was staring.  
  
"Oh, Ron, hello." She said carefully. It was the first time she had addressed him with his Christian name, rather than with Commander Weasley. He supposed he could drop the Dr. Granger too.  
  
"It's good to see you up." He said, nervously.  
  
*Hermione's POV  
  
Hermione barely heard him say that. She had forgotten how blue his eyes were. They danced about; side to side. Like they always did when he was embarrassed.  
  
"Thank you," She replied. "Have you read the article in the Daily Prophet about your discovery?" He asked politely.  
  
"Yes, Harry showed me it," She said, keeping her voice even and neutral, then on impulse she said, "But that's not the only article that has mentioned my name recently."  
  
*Ron's POV  
  
Ron scowled, "I wish the press would just keep out of our business," He said, A little savagely.  
  
"Indeed," Hermione replied thoughtfully, "Who would have thought that Lavender Brown would be the next Rita Skeeter! I doubt that I can put her into a jar!"  
  
Ron chuckled, "Yes but Parvati's Your Horoscopes section is worse," he said.  
  
Hermione smiled, not a polite smile, a genuine warm one. The one he had loved.  
  
*Hermione's POV  
  
"I have to go, I promised I'd have tea with Jacob, it was nice talking with you," She said.  
  
"Goodbye."  
  
"Goodbye." * Jacob's office was as warm and welcoming as ever. The old man was a grandfather figure to Hermione; he was kindly, and caring. They shared a lot in common, and Jacob delighted in having someone to discuss his obsession with: The Lord of the Rings. Hermione was the only member of staff to have read the books.  
  
They had crumpets, teacakes, scones and cinnamon toast. They talked of this and that, discussing the next move for Hermione's research but the subject that Hermione dreaded had to come up.  
  
"You seem to have quite a hold over that young auror." Jacob said casually.  
  
"We were best friends at Hogwarts, along with Harry that is," Hermione said, carefully.  
  
"I think perhaps a little more as far as Commander Weasley's concerned?" Jacob asked, smiling.  
  
"Maybe. But that was a long time ago. We were only school kids." Hermione replied, but he must have seen the wistful look in her eyes for he said,  
  
"Ah yes but old feelings come up to attack us at the strangest of times."  
  
"Like now? No. Not me." Hermione said only half truthfully.  
  
"You may think that but do you feel it?" Jacob asked.  
  
"Oh Jacob! Don't go hitting me with your cryptic soul searching questions! You're the only one who can make sense of them!" She moaned.  
  
Jacob chuckled, "It's reassuring to know that there is something that you can't make sense of. And flattering to think I'm more cryptic than Merlin!"  
  
"Merlin was just very bad at taking notes. I don't deserve half the credit I'm getting," Hermione said.  
  
"I thought I'd lost you," Jacob said, in a serious tone, "It was frightening. You're more than just an employee to me. You've been kind to me in my old age. Listened to my stories, bared my groaning. And at 23, that's rare."  
  
Hermione didn't know what to say in answer; instead she hugged the old man.  
  
"Hermione, I will not be here for much longer. I have decided to leave you everything I have. You know I have no family and you're the closest I'll get."  
  
Hermione looked up, surprised. "No, really, I have everything I need." She lied.  
  
"No. Your parents left you a lot and what money you will have when I'm gone will be about that but you've told me themselves, the deatheaters burnt the house that you should have inherited. My property in Newcastle will do as a home, should you need it."  
  
*  
  
"What's the matter?" Harry asked. He was sitting in the pub with Eilonwy and Hermione.  
  
"Jacob had changed his will. I'll get everything when he's gone," Hermione said shakily.  
  
"What?" Harry asked surprised.  
  
"I don't know. It all seems really strange to me." Hermione replied.  
  
"No its not, Jacob loves you like his own daughter." Eilowny reasoned.  
  
"I know but something doesn't feel right." 


	12. Interlude 4

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * Interlude 4 * An Extract from Rosalie Jarvis' Diary  
  
*  
  
It's so strange. Phil and me always walk past that cave when we go to his house. I'm sure there's something going on there. Phil says he hasn't noticed anything. But Phil's a muggle and what does he know?  
  
It's just off the steep cliff path, near Ormswater. I want to go and look, but I can't risk Phil seeing anything magical going on. What should I do? I've seen sparks flying out of it, from Phil's bedroom window. Yellow sparks, but who would go up there to do magic unless it was something illegal. What's even more worrying is that the only wizards and witches living on Orkney are the ones working at Isenguard like me. Ok so I'm just a muggle protection spell enforcer, I don't do any of the real work but that doesn't mean I'm not part of the Station. And it's scary to think that someone could be tricking us all.  
  
I just hope Phil doesn't read this diary; he'd never want to have anything to do with me again. 


	13. Chapter 8 Working together once again

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * Chapter 8 *  
  
Ron looked around: good there was nobody around. With stealth and a grace you would not have thought possible from the tall man, he sneaked up the rocky cliff path. It was steep, slippery and had many loose stones which all made the going treacherous, but it was the first real lead he had come across.  
  
He had discovered a diary belonging to Rosalie Jarvis, one the missing people. In one of her last entries she had spoken of a cave that she suspected to be the place of illegal magic performance.  
  
It had taken him all morning to locate the spot that Rosalie had been talking about and now he was going towards the very cave that Rosalie had wanted to investigate. Ron suspected that Rosalie was kidnapped (for by now Ron sure that people where being kidnapped) because she was near discovering the cave's secret, but that didn't explain the motives for kidnapping the others.  
  
Ron shivered, it was a miserable day. The sky was angry with clouds purple clouds swarming up above. Frosty rain lashed down on him hard and his fingers felt numb. He was very glad when he reached the cave's entrance.  
  
It was very well hidden and incredibly sheltered for such a remote spot.  
  
"Lumos," Ron muttered as he entered the cave to light up his wand.  
  
By the faint glow of his wand Ron could see a wooden bench, with various beakers on it. Near to this was a cauldron with the remnants of a potion in it. Fingering the mushy grass green substance Ron's suspicions were fulfilled. It was Detroide the potion used to power the Franchesi spell. A very powerful magic consuming spell. It was the self-same spell that has transported Ron, Harry and Hermione to Lord Voldemort's stronghold in their final battle against him. The Franchesi spell had the power to lock on to a person and send them to an allocated destination. A bit like apparating only performed by someone else. Ron had begun to suspect the spells use when the muggle had reported Chris Montage disappearing into thin air.  
  
Ron performed a spell to draw up an image of the cave's user but came across a powerful blocking spell. Irritated Ron scribbled down what he had learnt and headed back to the castle. He might not know for certain who it was but the whole thing stank of Malfoy. He was always very good with potions and the Detroide potion was a particularly difficult one to make. *  
  
Hermione felt her heartbeat quicken.  
  
"You haven't seen Eilonwy all day?" She asked Harry.  
  
"No." Harry replied mystified.  
  
"Oh no. Nobody has seen her since last night when you came back from the pub with her." Hermione said, panic in her voice.  
  
*  
  
Ron was discussing his findings with his team when a rather distraught looking Hermione burst in, by an equally troubled Harry.  
  
Ron stared at her, her brown eyes shone with tears and her features were all panicked. Dark curls tumbled around her shoulders messily and a thick red cloak had been flung on in a hurry.  
  
"What?" He asked.  
  
"It's Eilonwy, she's disappeared. She's gone, like the rest," Hermione said breaking down into tears.  
  
Ron got up and put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry," He said soothingly, "We've had a major link. I'm sure that these people are being kidnapped rather than murdered and dumped into a ditch."  
  
Hermione looked up to him, unsure, but yet it seemed she had been comforted by his words. He too had been comforted in a strange way, for this had been the first time Hermione had dropped her barriers of unfamiliarity and allowed him to see her emotions. Ok so it was worry for a friend, but it was a start.  
  
*  
  
Harry was forced to return home for a mission but he made them promise to send him news. Apparently he'd fallen for the elfin princess in the few days they'd known each other.  
  
Hermione sat in the common room, surrounded by friends, all with a worried expression on their faces. The whole station was subdued, Eilonwy had been popular. Hermione found that she could no longer bear to sit by and do nothing and went back to the operations room.  
  
She knocked on the door.  
  
"Come in," Ron called.  
  
She did, he was on his own, frowning over a piece of parchment. He was clearly surprised to see her but she was determined.  
  
"I want to help." She said plainly, "I know this island better than you, I know this station inside and out and I know the people in. You need my help and I want to help my friends."  
  
*  
  
Ron blinked at her surprised and realised what she was saying made sense. They did indeed need her help. He smiled.  
  
"Thank you, I'm sure you can really help."  
  
"So you'll let me?" She asked taken aback, she'd obviously expected more of an argument.  
  
"We aren't getting very far. Ok so we've had a major link but we don't know the lay of the land so to speak." He explained.  
  
*  
  
She crossed the room to sit next to him at the round table, the house elves had done a good job.  
  
"Jacob just got this," He said handing her a piece of parchment.  
  
She took it, it said:  
  
Dear Mr de Winter, You have allowed my daughter to be kidnapped! I shouldn't have let her go to your pathetic station. I knew all along it was a bad idea. I have just received a note of ransom. It demanded sixteen of Herolia's most precious gemstones in return for my daughter and seven other hostages, Herolia can no afford this! Yours Sincerely, Beruse, King of all Herolia.  
  
* Ron watched as Hermione read the letter, he watched her eyes light up with anger and heard her gasp.  
  
"That shows why the others where kidnapped." Ron said, "Whoever the kidnapper is obviously thought Beruse would pay up straight away and not mention a word to anyone for fear of Eilonwy's safety. If eight people disappeared and came back (probably with a memory charm performed ion them) I would never have worked out why theses people had disappeared."  
  
Hermione nodded, "But what was the break through you mentioned earlier?"  
  
And so Ron filled her in on everything, blissful to be working with Hermione, once again. 


	14. Chapter 9 Truth Hurts

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * AN- please don't read ahead in this chapter, it could really spoil it! * Chapter 9 *  
  
Eilonwy stared through the gloom, she couldn't move a muscle. Her elfin senses registered seven people in the same room and she knew she had joined the list of the missing.  
  
She couldn't bare it. Her right ear itched and a strand of sapphire hair had fallen into her eyes, blurring her vision not that she could see much anyway. It was too dark.  
  
*  
  
"Obvious course of action would be to stake out that cave!" Kate argued.  
  
"I know, and that was my first thought, apart from the fact that something just doesn't feel right about that place." Ron said, gaining groans from his team, Hermione who sat next to Jane remained quiet, for not the first time since he had met her Ron would have dearly loved to know what she was thinking.  
  
"Let's look at what we have!" Mark said, standing up and crossing to the magi-board that they were using to write main points on. "You said the cave was up a rocky, hard to climb path?"  
  
"Yes," Ron nodded.  
  
"So we decided that our culprit must be a fit man. I wonder Dr. Granger would you say that Dr Malfoy is a fit man?"  
  
"Just Hermione please." Hermione said, calmly, "And I he lives in another of the tower flats, believe me if you had to climb steps like the ones leading up to them everyday, you'd be fit."  
  
At this Ron's team members chuckled breaking any tension. Hermione was good like that he thought, she could gain peoples confidence quickly and easily, which would have made her a good Auror. Oh why hadn't he kept his mouth shut?  
  
Ron got up and went to the magi-board. "If Malfoy is our man then he'll be dangerous." He said.  
  
Hermione nodded, "I fought him once and barely got out alive."  
  
Ron shuddered at the memory. Hermione had been studying late with Professor McGonagall and her group of students studying advanced Transfiguration. As Hermione had been the only Gryffindor in the group, she'd had to walk back to the common room on her own. She had caught Malfoy passing information on to some spy (who he'd been helping get inside the castle) the spy had fled but Malfoy had turned nasty. They had had a big (but surprisingly quite for it did not bring the teachers) involving magic and when Hermione stumbled back into the common room, she was a state: cuts and bruises everywhere. Ron had been livid. Malfoy had come off worse however and was unconscious for three days. He was later expelled.  
  
"Look boss, I know you don't like the idea, and Merlin knows your instincts are good but we'd be able to hear someone coming up the path. And I mean, what's one man to all five of us?" Ken asked.  
  
"Six." Hermione corrected.  
  
"Ok, ok but I don't like it! Be prepared, we go just before sunset, which would be about?" Ron asked, looking towards Hermione.  
  
"Here, at this time of year, half five." Hermione replied.  
  
"Ok, so meet in the entrance hall at half five, dress warmly and Jane I'll leave you in charge of the cloaks, Mark you handle the other equipment," Ron said, "Ken send a report to headquarters."  
  
*  
  
Hermione and Ron sat hidden underneath an invisibility cloak. Elsewhere the rest of Ron's team were concealed underneath similar cloaks. The team had obviously liked Hermione and had instantly warmed to her head on approach and as Kate had whispered to Jane, she was so Ron's type.  
  
The cave entrance lay before them. Surely the instigator of the spell would return to make another person disappear so as to cover his tracks that Eilonwy had been his motive.  
  
Hermione shivered, it was an extremely cold evening. She drew her red cloak around her further. She had insisted on being allowed to accompany them, after all they were strangers to the island and there was no way they'd find their way back to the caste in the dark. She could.  
  
Beside her Ron shifted uncomfortably. He wished Hermione hadn't insisted on coming. He would have liked to say it was against the rules for a civilian to accompany them on a dangerous mission but although she hadn't had the proper training Hermione's work against Voldemort classified her as a semi- professional auror. Which he supposed was only fair.  
  
He hadn't forgotten that without him she would have been an auror. He had frightened her away. He just hadn't been able to stand it, she would get hurt! And how could he have lived if she had died in a mission? How could he live if she died that night in the stakeout?  
  
Hermione felt her eye lids drooping; she hadn't had much sleep, for worry of her friends. Ron noticed her tiredness and thought he better talk to keep her awake.  
  
"I'll never forget the look of horror on Mr de Winter's face when he read that note. Form Eilonwy's father." He said.  
  
"Huh?" Hermione asked, suddenly alert, that was another of her gifts, if her attention was wavering all that someone had to do was speak to her to bring her back onto the subject.  
  
"I was there when he got the letter from, King Beruse. He just let out a gasp of shock and dropped the note. I picked it up, read it (no don't frown at me Hermione I know it could have been personal). When I asked if I could keep it he just nodded as if he was in a trance and hadn't really noticed. "  
  
"Poor Jacob," Hermione said fondly. He cares for all the staff so much. Eilonwy was one of his favourites, being an elf she seemed to come out of Tolkien, and it was lovely to have a thing from his obsession working at the station. Eilonwy isn't exceptionally bright I'm afraid, but Jacob took her in, mostly because she was an elf. Eilonwy's job was never approved of by her father the Heroila elves seem to think all women are good for is looking pretty!"  
  
"Shush!" Ron said suddenly. He had heard something from within the cave.  
  
They listened; indeed someone was clattering about in there. Ron sent the signal for his team to enter the cave. They crept in, Hermione following, her heart thundering in her chest so loud that it seemed like a warning for whoever was in the cave. 'Probably Malfoy," She thought.  
  
The cave had been lit with a strange sort cold blue light. The walls seemed larger and more dominating than before. Ron could sense the other four ahead of him and Hermione. And knew they had reached the source of light when Kate screamed and a distorted voice muttered a curse that Ron didn't know.  
  
Hermione gasped. She also had heard the scream and the muttered curse, but to her the distorted voice sounded all too familiar, but surely it couldn't be?  
  
They edged forward keeping to the walls of the cave till they came nearer the source of the blue light. If she hadn't seen him with her own eyes she'd never have believed it was him. Jacob.  
  
"Ahh Mr Weasley. I know you're there. I can see through the silly cloak of yours. I knew you'd come. But Hermione my dear: you too? Why you do disappoint me!" Jacob said, but it wasn't the warm friendly voice that she had known and loved instead it was cold and harsh.  
  
Ron took out his wand but Jacob just laughed. "Oh I wouldn't bother. I've put a dampening spell on this cave. See I knew you were coming! So I made sure that you wouldn't be able to use your Auror's magic in here, I on the other hand am perfectly capable of using mine!"  
  
Ron blanched, he'd had nightmares of being in a position like that. A civilian (ok an almost civilian) to care for and no magic! His team sprawled out on the floor, apparently un-hurt but very pallid looking.  
  
Beside him Hermione stared with disbelief, her eye wide with uncertainty. Ron watched her emotions turn very quickly from incredulity to anger, and the rage of one who had been betrayed.  
  
"You! You befriended me! I thought you cared for your staff! You made me the sole beneficiary of your will! Why? Why bother? You would have just made me disappear in time too!" Hermione shouted, Ron was alarmed to hear not only abhorrence of de Winter in her voice but self-hatred too. Hermione clearly was loathing herself for trusting the old man.  
  
"You're being very unfair Hermione dear. I would not have made you 'disappear' too. No I was very fond of you. You were by far the cleverest ever to have crossed my path." Jacob said, moving to pat her on the head, horrified Hermione jerked backwards.  
  
Jacob smiled wryly, "It's always the same, whenever anybody sees me for who I really am, they hate me."  
  
"I can't think why," Ron replied his voice dripping with sarcasm.  
  
"So are they alive? Chris, Rosalie? Eilonwy?" Hermione asked, her fear unmasked, as she spoke of her friends.  
  
"Chris Montage, oh he had tasty blood! But Rosalie Jarvis? Far too tinny." Jacob replied as if her were discussing a meal.  
  
"You're a vampire? But I would have been able to tell!" Ron said, confused.  
  
"Oh I've no doubt you would have Mr Weasley. You are very talented. But I am of a rare breed of vampire. You see, my kind only need blood once every twenty years, then we have to drink a lot. Our bites can kill (no your friends are still alive I didn't bite them properly just a defence mechanism) but they do not, like the common vampires bite, turn the bitten into a vampire. Me being different from the rest of my race is what made me take poor Eilonwy on, we have so many things in common, but of course no- one would realise, I could hide under my apparent love of Tolkien"  
  
Hermione gasped, "So they're all dead?" She asked, tears shining in her eyes.  
  
"All except dear Eilonwy." Jacob replied. "You see, I love this station and want to keep it. But our funds are low. The gemstones from Herolia will save the station, pity you won't have enough memory left to work here any more Hermione. I would have gotten away with it too, if you hadn't been there when that wretched letter came!" He pointed an accustitive finger at Ron. "But that doesn't matter you won't live to tell the tale."  
  
"Ahh but it was in the report I sent to headquarters!" Ron said triumphantly.  
  
And with that Jacob raised his wand, and golden coils sped towards them. Hermione was bound first, so tight that she could barely breathe.  
  
"Why not just bite me?" Hermione asked, scornful.  
  
"Oh no Hermione. You see I really do care for you. For all I may be twisted and bitter I love you like my own granddaughter," He said, his words ringing true.  
  
Ron and Hermione, both helpless and unable to use their magic were transported along with the four still forms that were Kate, Jane, Mark and Ken, to a dark musky place. The air smelled fowl and had a thick unpleasantness to it that made it almost impossible to breathe.  
  
"Who's there?" A voice called out.  
  
"Eilonwy are you all right?" Hermione asked.  
  
"Hermione?"  
  
"Yes. Oh Eilonwy it's awful! Do you know who is keeping us here?" Hermione asked.  
  
"No."  
  
"It's Jacob." 


	15. Interlude 5

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * Interlude 5 *  
  
A story in the Daily Prophet.  
  
A leak in the auror network has shown that people connected to the acclaimed but mysterious Isenguard Station have been disappearing. All together nine of the station's workers have disappeared, among them heroine Hermione Granger and elfin Princess Eilonwy.  
  
Hermione Granger after making a ground breaking discovery seems to have vanished. You may remember that she was mentioned recently in my article 'The Famous Hogwarts Trio' as the third and most elusive member of the trio. I described the friendship as being savagely broken apart but it know seems possible that a reunion took place before Dr. Granger's disappearance.  
  
Ron Weasley I can exclusively reveal travelled to the station nearly a fortnight ago to investigate the disappearances which then had totalled seven. So their reunion was inevitable. Later when Dr Granger nearly lost her life due to a magical draining the most famous member of the trio, Harry Potter also went to the Station fearing for his friends life.  
  
Ron Weasley and his team of four have now also been reported missing and it is speculated that Dr Granger was assisting them in their missing and disappeared at the same time as them.  
  
When interviewed about his friends plight Harry Potter said, "Of course I'm worried, wouldn't you be?"  
  
And what happens next? That remains to be seen, but I Lavender Brown m on the case and will myself be travelling to the Isenguard Station in the hope of bringing the truth to you readers. 


	16. Chapter 10 Trapped

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * Chapter 10 *  
  
They must have sat there for hours, the gloom overwhelming like an intoxicating drug that slowed their senses. But all the time Ron was calculating, how to escape? His mind ran through a thousand possible plans, each discarded, each useless.  
  
Never in his career as an auror had he hit upon such a stalemate. He knew Jacob would be worried and frantic, which would make him all the more dangerous. He still had his wand but Jacob's dampening spells had rendered them useless.  
  
His team did not wake up but Ron knew they were alive for Jacob had taken the trouble to bind them. Hermione sat silent, frightened but determined and angry. Eilonwy was tearful, and tired, she had been trapped for a day and a half, eventually she slept, her breathing laboured and uneven.  
  
Still Ron's mind was working overtime, there had to be a way out! He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice Hermione struggling till she was free of her bindings.  
  
"How?" Ron asked incredulous.  
  
"The twins taught us that trick, years ago, I'm surprised you didn't remember. Surely it's a useful skill in your line of work?" Hermione said.  
  
"Oh, of course! I'd completely forgotten! Thank god the twins think it's useful to learn muggle tricks! Untie me too please."  
  
Hermione did so and Ron stretched his aching muscles thankfully. Then they set to work going over the damp walls of the strange enclosed cave they were in, looking for cracks or a way out. None were to be found.  
  
Defeated Ron groaned and slid down the wall burying his face in his hands. It was no use!  
  
"I can't wake them up." Hermione said; she was standing by Kate, Ken. Mark and Jane. "I think Jacob must have bitten them, a mild bite not enough to kill but to send them into a coma."  
  
Ron looked up. He knew this Hermione. The one who wouldn't give up, despite the odds. Her determination fuelled by anger and betrayal. Her brown eyes shone in the gloom, he could just make her tumble of dark curls and slight figure.  
  
"Hermione." He said; he knew they had no chance, not without magic.  
  
"No Ron! I won't give up!" She said fiercely! "There has to be a way!"  
  
Ron stood up and walked towards her, "Maybe there isn't this time." He said.  
  
"I don't believe I'm hearing this! Not from you! Never from you!" She said, her eyes snapping angrily, he felt he had just added to the betrayal that had already been piled upon her.  
  
"I'm sorry." He said quietly, "I've examined all the possibilities and none will get us out of here."  
  
"There has got to be a way." Hermione repeated determinedly.  
  
Ron looked at her, she seemed so sure, it gave him desperate hope. Hope that they would get out of the situation alive, hope that he had not failed, and hope that she could still love him.  
  
"You're right," He said slowly, "We can't give up. We didn't give up faced with Voldemort so we certainly can't give up in the face of a mad vampire."  
  
Hermione smiled, "Not even with the odds against us?"  
  
"No. Not even with the odds against us." He confirmed. "We have survived worst times than this."  
  
He made himself move closer to her, and put his hand on her shoulder. She looked up, uncertainty suddenly flooding her features. He quickly took his hand away realising that he had made the wrong move but Hermione caught it and smiled up at him.  
  
He smiled back, and squeezed her hand affectionately. Then her countenance failed and tears formed in her eyes.  
  
*  
  
Hermione felt a sudden rush of emotion attack her. Salty tears threatened to fall and did when he wrapped his arms around her. She buried her face in his chest not wanting him to see the tears.  
  
How familiar it was to be in his arms, yet a thing of distant memories. How familiar to have those large hands stroke her hair reassuringly! How familiar to breath in his scent as if it were partly hers! How many times had she cried into his chest? How many times had she turned to him for comfort? How many times had she told herself that she would never again do so?  
  
"I'm sorry," She heard him say.  
  
She looked up at him, his perfect blue eyes filled with regret and adoration at the same time.  
  
*  
  
He hated himself, how could he have hurt her? It was his fault that her pretty face was stained with tears. If only he could make it right!  
  
He tilted her chin making her look at him, taking a deep breath he said, "Look Hermione, I should never have chased you away. I was trying to hard to protect you and only hurt you. I'm sorry."  
  
"I'm sorry too," She said her voice shaking;"I shouldn't have left, I should have understood! I."  
  
He silenced her with a kiss.  
  
* She kissed him back, realising just how much she had longed to do so. When they broke apart she smiled, her cheeks still wet with tears.  
  
"I love you." He said.  
  
She flung her arms around his neck, desperately happy despite their situation. "I love you too." She whispered.  
  
*  
  
A sudden rush of elation swarmed him. He clung onto Hermione, never wanting to let her go. She was where she belonged: in his arms. Their years apart no longer counted.  
  
Then a groan brought him back down to Earth.  
  
"Eilonwy, you're awake!" Hermione said, breaking away from Ron and rushing to relive Eilonwy of her bounds.  
  
He followed her and knelt down beside the elf. "There's no way out." He told her, apologetically.  
  
*  
  
"Harry, Harry!" Oliver Wood called out to his team mate as they left the changing rooms after training.  
  
"What?" Harry asked, he was distracted, he was worried about Eilonwy. Unbeknownst to his tow friends, Harry had started up a relationship with the beautiful elf.  
  
"The paper! Oh Harry it's terrible!" Oliver cried brandishing a copy of the Daily Prophet.  
  
Harry read the article: Isenguard Disappearances, a feeling of despair growing within him.  
  
"Merlin's beard!" Harry exclaimed, "I have to do something!"  
  
"What can you do?" Oliver asked.  
  
"I don't know, but there are no more games till after Christmas, I can go." Harry said, a fierce resolve flickering in his green eyes.  
  
"Then I'll come with you!" Oliver said, worried for his team mates and friends safety, Harry could be reckless when he was like that.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
*  
  
Lavender Brown sighed wearily. She had arrived on the bleak isle of Orkney that morning and had not found out anything that she didn't already know.  
  
She sat down in the dining room about to start eating when low and behold two Quidditch Stars walked into the room.  
  
Harry Potter and Oliver Wood: now there was a story! People had stopped eating and stared at the new arrivals.  
  
*  
  
Hermione, Ron and Eilonwy sat in silence, each contemplating their situations. Eilonwy still felt as if her mind was sleeping, she could not think straight. Then a rave haired, green eyed, scar ridden face swam in her head and suddenly her thoughts became clear! "Elfish magic!" She exclaimed, "Of course I'm a little out of practice but dampening spells don't work against it!"  
  
Hermione and Ron looked up at her, hopefully, "Do you think you can get a message to somebody outside, tell them where this cave is? And warn them about Jacob?" Hermione asked.  
  
"Yes, where is this cave though?" Eilonwy asked.  
  
"Up North Point Path, it looks like nothing, but there is a cave there." Hermione replied.  
  
"Good luck," Ron said.  
  
*  
  
When Harry and Oliver had sat down with trays of steaming food, Lavender went to join them at their table.  
  
They looked at her with surprise, "Lavender Brown?" Harry asked, "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Fishing for a story." She replied smiling prettily, "I." But was cut off but a sudden blue light filling the room, it seemed to be emitted from the white menu board.  
  
Then writing appeared on the board, and it was the menu.  
  
HELP! Was written in a tidy handwriting.  
  
"That's Eilonwy's writing!" Maya Farmone squealed.  
  
Harry rushed over and seized one of the board pens, he wrote:  
  
THIS IS HARRY POTTER: WHERE ARE YOU? IS RON AND HERMIONE THERE TOO?  
  
The reply came quickly  
  
HARRY? YES THEY ARE, AND SO IS RON'S TEAM. THE REST ARE DEAD, I'M SORRY EVERYBODY. WE ARE BEING KEPT IN A CAVE. THE ENTRENCE TO THE MAIN PART OF THE CAVE IS UP NORTH POINT PATH. IT LOOKS LIKE NOTHING BUT THERE IS A CAVE THERE.  
  
"I know where that is." Draco Malfoy said, standing up. Harry was surprised to see tears in his eyes; apparently he had been friendly with one of the first to disappear.  
  
WHO HAS YOU HELD HOSTAGE? Harry wrote.  
  
JACOB DE WINTER! HE HAS BETRAYED US ALL!  
  
Gasps met this revelation and Jacob who had been sitting in the corner of the room eating alone was seized. And so the rescue began.  
  
*  
  
The three conscious hostages waited anxiously. Sitting together on the clod stone floor Hermione snuggled up against Ron's chest. Eilonwy watched them, amused despite their situation.  
  
Suddenly the sound of cracking stone could be heard and light filled their rocky prison.  
  
Eilonwy blinked, the sudden light hurting her eyes, and for a moment that Jacob had returned to bite them. But once her vision re-focused she felt relief flood her, for her friends, Harry, Malfoy and a man she recognized from Quidditch Weekly entered the cave.  
  
* "Harry!" Hermione cried running over to him and hugging her friend, "Oliver?"  
  
"You haven't changed." Oliver remarked laughing.  
  
"Thank Merlin, Harry I thought I was done for!" Ron said, walking over.  
  
"It's Malfoy you can thank." Harry said, "He led us here."  
  
Ron blinked, "Thank you Malfoy."  
  
Malfoy sneered, "My pleasure," He said, insincerely.  
  
Hermione and Eilonwy offered their reluctant thanks. Hermione noticed Harry's inquisitive but delighted look when she took Ron's arm and allowed him to lead her from their prison.  
  
*  
  
"Thank you," Eilonwy said a little shyly to the great Harry Potter whom she supposed was her boyfriend? Was that the word humans used?  
  
"My pleasure," Harry said, but his remark, unlike the one Malfoy had made to Ron: was very, very sincere. He leaned down to kiss her, overjoyed when she returned it and snaked her elegant arms around his neck.  
  
AN- This isn't the end. There's a few more chapters yet and possibly a sequel. 


	17. Chapter 11 Aftermath

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * Chapter 11 *  
  
The rain lashed down hard and an icy wind plagued the hillside. The sky was an incensed group of gathering malicious black clouds. On the hill top a group of people congregated together all dressed in billowing black robes with pale and unhappy faces. They stood around a tall monument of shiny black stone. It was a disheartening sight; people sobbed and looked to each other for comfort, not noticing the intense cold for their grief was stronger.  
  
Ron watched from afar as Hermione comforted her friends: the memorial service for those killed had just finished. Hermione herself was in a grief- stricken state but was being strong for her friends. He watched as she hugged the widowed Anna Montage, wife of Jacob's last victim. He noticed Eilonwy consoling the distraught middle-aged son of Tellsa Gertman. Beside him Harry sighed.  
  
"It's not right. These people don't even have the bodies to bury!" He said, indignantly.  
  
"I know," Ron said regretfully, "we just couldn't find them."  
  
"It's not your fault; I bet De Winter threw them into the sea or something equally as horrific."  
  
"Yeah well. He won't trouble anyone anymore. They took him to Azkaban, and he won't be getting out, when the blood he took from these people runs out, he'll just die." Ron said, shivering.  
  
"He deserves it." Harry said, "But I do feel sorry for him: he can't help being what he is."  
  
"Yeah, but it's up to the courts to decide what happens to him." Ron replied.  
  
"Why did he change his will for Hermione: if he was so evil?" Harry asked.  
  
"I think he really was fond of her. But there isn't much. He didn't have a penny left; otherwise he wouldn't have needed to kidnap Eilonwy. There is a run down Tudor manor house though with big grounds; well it's an estate really," Ron said.  
  
"Surely that must have been worth something? Why didn't he sell that?" Harry asked, "He was muggle-born, he could have sold it the house to the National Trust and the grounds to farmers."  
  
"The National Trust?" Ron asked, confused.  
  
"Never mind." Harry replied, "Muggle thing."  
  
"Well anyway, the house and grounds are a mystery, he had had them valued. They were worth an awful lot of money, even in the wizarding world. It's a mystery why he didn't just sell them." Ron said.  
  
Their conversation was stopped as Hermione and Eilonwy joined them. Neither off them looked their best in dull black robes, relevant to the event that had just taken place. Hermione smiled weakly up at him, and he took her hand squeezed it, sympathetically.  
  
Eilonwy and Harry left, heading down the path back to the castle. Ron and Hermione lingered as she put flowers onto the black stone monument that had been erected in honour and memory of the victims.  
  
"I trusted him." Hermione whispered, "How could I have been so blind?"  
  
Ron looked down at her affectionately, she was a mess. Her face was paler than usual and her eyes were red-rimmed from crying. Her wild curls were sopping wt and hung lankly around her face with none of their usual boisterousness and charm.  
  
He reached down and wiped away the tear that had started crawling down her face, "You weren't to know. I liked him too when I first met him. He seemed almost grandfatherly."  
  
"He was, but it was all an act!" Hermione said.  
  
"Oh Hermione!" He said drawing her into an embrace. They stood there for several moments but Hermione drew away saying:  
  
"You're right! I shouldn't be blaming myself." She said.  
  
"No you shouldn't. If it's anyone's fault it's the Unspeakables giving Jacob the run of this place." Ron muttered, at the mention of the Unspeakables Hermione's expression had turned angry and worried, "what?"  
  
"They have withdrawn their permission for the Station to operate. They are closing it down."  
  
* Warm and safe within the castle, not having gone to the memorial service, Lavender Brown interviewed Oliver Wood about his career, when she had finished she said, "Of course you aren't the real story here!"  
  
"I know." He replied, "But Ron says that information on things that went on in this Station, will by law become classified information."  
  
"Oh." Lavender frowned, "Apparently you will be the biggest story then."  
  
*  
  
A month later, Hermione, Harry, Ron and Eilonwy met in the Leaky Cauldron.  
  
"Well it's gone." Hermione said, regret in her voice.  
  
"The Unspeakables demolished the castle." Eilonwy explained.  
  
"It's for the best." Harry said.  
  
"I know." Hermione replied.  
  
The talk turned to more cheerful things, Ginny's wedding, Christmas, Eilonwy's recent visit home, the birth of Percy's second child: named Kathryn.  
  
"You're all welcome to the Burrow for Christmas, unless you're going home E" Ron said. (Ron had decided that Eilonwy's name was too much of a mouthful and nicknamed her E, Hermione had pointed out that hers was longer and he used her full name but he just shrugged.)  
  
"No, I'd be delighted too! We don't have Christmas in Herolia." Eilonwy said.  
  
"You've never had a proper Christmas till you've had a Weasley one!" Harry grinned at his girlfriend.  
  
"No." Hermione muttered distractedly.  
  
Ron realised his mistake, "If it's too much for you, with everyone being there, you don't have to come," He said.  
  
"No it will be nice to see everyone again, and meet the new members," Hermione said smiling happily.  
  
"Good then it's settled. You'll all come to the Burrow on Christmas!" Ron said, beaming, Harry didn't have to be asked; he was a Weasley and had spent every Christmas with them since the end of Hogwarts.  
  
"Now Ron, I don't know what you'll say to this. But I have a job at the Auror's Institute." Hermione said carefully, "But it's in the Research section so it won't be all that different from the Station." "That's wonderful!" Ron said, hugging her.  
  
"What about you Eilonwy?" Harry asked.  
  
"Same as Hermione," Eilonwy replied.  
  
"Perfect!" Harry chuckled.  
  
"Indeed, one thing is troubling me though." Hermione said.  
  
"What is?" Eilonwy asked.  
  
"What am I going to do with the Tudor House?"  
  
AN- Please, please review!!!!!!! 


	18. Interlude 6

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * AN- For the sake of this interlude Ron's birthday is in January and he is a Capricorn. I have given him my birthday- January 13th! Anyway Hermione's birthday is in September (19th?) anyway it's my friend's birthday today (17th) and she's a Virgo so I presume that's what Hermione is. The other reasoning for this chapter is that my good friend Natalie- who is into such things- say's that Virgo's are compatible with Capricorns! Three cheers for Nat, thank you for your help!  
  
*  
  
Parvati's Star charts for the week ahead! 23rd-29th December  
  
Virgo: This week expect to meet old friends. You will face emotional challenges this Christmas but remember, be strong and you will come out well. Romance is also in the charts for you. Be careful and don't waste the chance Christmas Day and the 29th of December are the perfect days for you. Shadows from events in the past week may remain but shake them away and enjoy this special time, which might turn even more memorable.  
  
Capricorn: Oh! This will be a big week for you! Your loved one faces a difficult time over Christmas, and will be a little overwhelmed by events, be there for him/her and make sure that this Christmas is their best one ever. You are a little overwhelmed yourself: how is it possible that anyone cares for someone as much as you care from this person? Follow your heart and be strong. It won't be easy but you have something important to do! 


	19. Chapter 12 The Last Christmas Present

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * Chapter 12: The Last Christmas Present! *  
  
Hermione felt strange standing on the doorway of the Weasley's house. The Burrow was so familiar and yet so strange. The building itself was the same but the people inside were bound to be different.  
  
Ron put his arm around her and she smiled up to him gratefully. It was Christmas morning and Ron, Eilonwy and Hermione had spent Christmas Eve at Godric's Hollow, arriving together at the burrow.  
  
Eilonwy seemed almost as nervous as Hermione. 'After all,' Hermione thought 'she's meeting her boyfriend's family.' For the Weasleys were Harry's family.  
  
An excited Mrs Weasley opened the door to them. She hadn't changed, except for the face that her brilliant red hair was streaked with grey and white. She immediately enveloped Hermione in a hug.  
  
"Oh my dear! How good it is to see you! I've missed you so! Oh it's all so wonderful!" Mrs Weasley squealed.  
  
"Mum! Let the girl breath!" Ron protested, but when Hermione was released, she could see tears of happiness in his eyes.  
  
Mr Weasley had followed his wife, and hugged Hermione in a fatherly way, "Glad to have you back." He said.  
  
When the fuss over Hermione was done with, they turned on Eilonwy. "Well so your Harry's new girlfriend. He's like a second son to me you know, well seventh actually." Mrs Weasley said as they were led into the living room.  
  
Here more introductions and reunions. Apparently people had forgotten to tell Fred and George about Hermione and after asking "Who on Earth the blue haired girl is?" set twin eyes upon Hermione, they broke down in surprise. When she looked back on that in years to come, Hermione would remember it as the only time Fred and George didn't have something witty to say to her on meeting.  
  
"We thought we'd never see you again," Fred said.  
  
"Yeah, but here you are- and looking good!" George teased, regaining control. This remark earned him a sharp look from Ron and a playful slap from his wife Katie.  
  
"And you said that there wasn't any chance of any romantic feelings between you and Ron?" Ginny said after the presents had been opened. The young Weasleys, all of whom were a little nervous about Hermione and Eilonwy had retreated to play with their new toys. Everyone had received presents, even Eilonwy.  
  
"I know. Oh it seems such a long time ago since we met in that café! So much has happened." Hermione sighed.  
  
"I'm so pleased for you! It's like Mum always dreamed!" Ginny said.  
  
"It is?" Hermione asked surprised.  
  
"Yes! Didn't you know?" Ginny said, as if it were something obvious.  
  
"No, I didn't."  
  
* From where he was helping little Mark Weasley (second child of Percy and Penelope) set up his new train set, Ron watched his sister and Hermione talking and when Hermione turned red he knew they were talking of him.  
  
He couldn't believe that Hermione was actually there, less than half a year ago they were completely estranged. And now- well he would make sure that that never happened again. He was determined.  
  
*  
  
Eilonwy felt a little overcome by all the red heads, but soon slipped into the easy, friendly atmosphere of the burrow. It was wonderful! A proper family: unlike her own.  
  
Her brother and sister were kind enough and she loved them but they were often too court up in kingdom affairs to bother with her. Her mother died not long after Eilonwy's birth and her father although loving was rarely there for her.  
  
Harry smiled at her, "So what do you think?"  
  
"Of what?" She asked.  
  
"The Weasleys?"  
  
"They are the best family in the world!"  
  
"You know that's what I thought when I first met them!"  
  
* Molly Weasley watched her youngest son and the curly haired witch laughing and smiled happily. A friend of hers from school had told her when Ron was born, that he would be happiest with a clever girl. Felicia Parry had been into Divination and was rarely wrong.  
  
For six years, Molly had been afraid that Ron would never be happy. But Hermione was very much back in his life and they had a bright future ahead of them.  
  
*  
  
That evening, when his siblings with children (Bill, Charlie and Percy) had gone home and the reaming adults lounged in the living room singing muggle carols and drinking butter beer, Ron dragged Hermione out into the cold December air.  
  
To everyone's great disappointment it hadn't snowed that Christmas but the Weather was freezing and they both wrapped up warm. It was time for the last Christmas present.  
  
"Ron? Why are we out here?" Hermione asked, "Its freezing!"  
  
He didn't answer but drew her into his embrace; he leant down to kiss her. The kiss was sweet but passionate, giving but also demanding.  
  
"Oh." She muttered when they broke apart, "That's why."  
  
"Yes and no really. I still have a Christmas present for you!" Ron said.  
  
"But you gave me." She began signalling to the luxurious purple cloak she was wearing.  
  
"No that's not your main present."  
  
A carol was struck up in the living room. * Silent Night, Holy Night.  
  
* Hermione felt her heart beating faster, she wasn't stupid, and she knew what he was most possibly talking about.  
  
"I." She started but Ron had got down onto one knee and was drawing out a black box. * All is calm, All is bright.  
  
*  
  
Ron had practised this so many times, over the past few months. He wasn't going to loose her again.  
  
"Hermione will you marry me?" He asked her showing her the contents of the box.  
  
Hermione gasped, as she stared at the perfect ring. Harry and Eilonwy had helped him select that small band of silver with the star piece in the middle. The 'star piece' was a number of small sparkling sapphires, Hermione's birthstone, in the shape of a star with a bigger beautiful diamond in the middle. It was very dainty and elegant.  
  
"Oh Ron! Yes!" She said, crying with happiness as she flung her arms around him.  
  
They kissed, both taken up with each other and the happiness they shared and would continue to share and as the last notes of Silent Night were sung:  
  
It started to snow.  
  
AN- I know slightly out of season but I didn't think that I'd get to this point so soon, and I was aiming to be writing this around Christmas but you know!  
  
Anyway this isn't the last chapter. The next one will involve Ginny's wedding and finally (although I hate to say finally) an Epilogue which will set the scene for the sequel! 


	20. Chapter 13 Landslide

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! And the song Landslide belongs to Fleetwood Mac. * AN- sniff sniff- nearly at the end. This is dedicated to AnimeGirl-Mika. You are the best reviewer ever and thank you thank you for your support. Without you this story would not have reached its last chapter and there would be no need for the Epilogue which will set the scene for the next story! Thank you thank you thank you!!! Thanks also to Amy, Natalie, Michelle and Nicole, for their patience when I force them to read Wraith Isenguard every dinner time, break and spare minute! Some of the pairings are their requests. I know the song isn't entirely suitable but the snatches that I put in seem to fit! * Hermione entered the wizard chapel with Ron. They were some of the last people to arrive and she could already see many of her old school friends sitting among the crowd, Neville Longbottom, looked up and grinned broadly when he saw her. She grinned back.  
  
They sat down in the second row, where Eilonwy and Harry had kept them seats. Someone tapped her on the back and she turned to find Parvati Patil grinning at her. Parvati was very fashionably dressed, taking away the traditional image of the physic's mystical appearance. Indeed Hermione was slightly blinded by the bright pink of her robes.  
  
"Hello Hermione, it's nice to see you again. And with your old Hogwarts sweet heart."  
  
"Yes, nice to see you too I." Hermione trailed off noticing with shock who Parvati's chaperone was. "Draco! Why are you here?" She asked.  
  
"Well," Parvati giggled, "the invitation did say Parvati Patil and partner."  
  
Hermione was saved making a response to this by the arrival of Lavender Brown, with non other than Oliver Wood. Apparently they had become very close since they had witnessed the events at the Isenguard Station.  
  
The groom stood with his brother Dennis as best man, after all he was marrying his best friend.  
  
When at last the ceremony started and the bride entered the crowd that had gathered quietened and it was if a magic spell had been cast.  
  
Ginny in her flowing white dress, was alight with happiness and glowing with the special beauty that graces only a bride on her special day. 'Which will be me soon," Hermione thought looking at the man beside her.  
  
*  
  
The reception was a grand affair. Many people who had not been able to attend the service had showed up.  
  
Among them were Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, both aurors and were surprised to find their young colleague very much taken up in a pretty girl.  
  
"Who is that Girl with Ron?" Remus asked Hagrid and Arthur Weasley.  
  
"She's familiar but I can't place her." Sirius said.  
  
Arthur smiled, "She's Ron's fiancée."  
  
"Really?" Hagrid asked surprised, "its bin a while since I last saw the lad, but it woulna of given him time to find a bride!"  
  
"Yeah and besides Harry was sure that he still hadn't gotten over Hermione!" Remus said.  
  
Arthur smiled broadly.  
  
"Hermione?" Sirius almost choked on the drink he was drinking.  
  
"Yes. She hasn't changed that much!" Arthur chuckled.  
  
*  
  
"Hermione!" Hagrid boomed when he finally managed to get to her.  
  
"Hagrid! It's wonderful to see you!" Hermione said, hugging the half giant.  
  
"And we thought you weren't coming back." Remus said, in his quiet gentle voice.  
  
"We did you know!" Sirius added.  
  
Hermione stared at the tow marauders and the half giant, her eyes filling with tears.  
  
"Of course I came back!" She said.  
  
*  
  
Hermione shared the last dance with her fiancée. Swirling around slowly in his arms felt wonderful.  
  
Here she was safe. Jacob. Vampires. Noting could get to her as long as she was in his arms.  
  
"'Mione?" He muttered in his her ear.  
  
"Yeah?" She asked.  
  
"I love you." He replied.  
  
"I love you too."  
  
And the snatches of the song-  
  
"I took my love and I took it down, I climbed a mountain and I turned around, and I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills, the landslide."  
  
*  
  
Ron swayed along to the music, not really registering the words, to taken with the woman in his arms. She was so perfect. How could he have lived without her?  
  
"Can I handle the seasons of my life? Well I've been afraid of changes cause I built my life around you."  
  
*  
  
They were oblivious to everyone around them. It was just the two of them and they had all of their life ahead of them:  
  
"The landslide will bring you down; oh the landslide will bring you down."  
  
AN- Short but sweet, right? And in answer to an earlier question by AnimeGirl- Mika Hermione is in research now, well it would be silly for her not to be, after all she has just made a brilliant discovery but events later in her life will draw her away from the quiet of her laboratories, they always will! 


	21. Epilogue

Disclaimer- Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers not me! Isenguard belongs to Tolkien and I don't know how many other people! * AN- read the AN at the end when you've finished, it's important!!! * Epilogue * A wood, well it was more of a thick hedge of thorns had grown up around the manor house that had once predominated the village in which it stood. There were various breaks in this hedge where it had been crudely cut back to allow people to pass through. But then teens that got a thrill out of visiting the ominous building after dark, where the only people harebrained enough to visit the place. The house which on the surface seemed nothing more than yet another old house gone to ruins but had an evil presence and a sinister past.  
  
It was a bright September morning when the house's new owner visited it. It was something that Hermione Granger and her fiancée Ron Weasley had been putting of for ages.  
  
The decrepit old building was run down and somewhat intimidating but it was not without its own special beauty. Despite the broken window and run down gardens the manor house was strangely enticing. The tantalising appeal of the house had instantly caught her imagination: everything from the weathered carving around the door frame to the deteriorating wooden beams seemed to her beautiful but terrible in a way that she could not explain.  
  
"Oh what will we do with it?" Hermione asked Ron, who stood beside her in quite contemplation, he too very much mystified by the strange building in front of them.  
  
"We'll live in it." He said, quietly but surely.  
  
"What? But it..." Hermione started to protest.  
  
"I know," Ron cut in, "It's run down and uninhabitable, but the money that the farmer in the village offered us for the farm land, we should be able to do it up, it would be easier than it looks, especially with magic. I have a cousin who does that sort of thing for a living!"  
  
"Do you really think we could? I mean it's almost falling down!" Hermione said unsurely.  
  
"I know. But remember that it's a muggle building and magic can do wonders. I know it was Jacob's and I know he was evil, but you can't deny it. You are as drawn to it as I am!"  
  
"Yes I am. And yes if your sure we'll go ahead with it!" Hermione said smiling happily.  
  
Ron hugged her tight, saying, "It'll work out for the best. You'll see."  
  
She broke away saying, "Come on then let's go and see that Farmer!"  
  
And so the two set back down the path through the overgrown and wild gardens, through the thorn hedge and into the village of Little Hangleton.  
  
AN- sniff sniff. This really is the end! Well not really as I'm about to go on and start the sequel. Sorry people who want the next instalment of Winter Wedding, I'm kind of taken up in this and I can't seem to concentrate when I try to write Winter Wedding.  
  
Explanation of Title, be honest did anyone actually get why the thing was called Wraith ISENGUARD? Why did I put all those Tolkien things in?  
  
No Nicole, this was not just because I love Frodo Baggins! No Isenguard is appropriate to my story.  
  
Well, the scene involving Saruman and Gandalf fighting, is called Treason at Isenguard, and what did Jacob do, he betrayed Hermione and the other staff! Jacob was just like Saruman! Ok, I'll stop blabbering on now!  
  
Thanks once again to AnimeGril-Mika, if it weren't for you this story wouldn't have been finished. I appreciate every single review I get and as you gave loads, I appreciate them all the more! And yes I would love it if you were my beta reader! *Squeals excitedly* I've never had one before!  
  
Please review people! 


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